


Fear

by akamine_chan



Series: Fear [1]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Community: ds_aprilfools, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-23
Updated: 2008-04-23
Packaged: 2017-10-02 12:27:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akamine_chan/pseuds/akamine_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had only taken a moment of inattention to kill this Leoben.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Livejournal community ds_aprilfools.
> 
> Warnings: character death, violence.
> 
> Unbeta'd.
> 
> Prompt: fear

It had only taken a moment of inattention to kill this Leoben.

He'd gotten careless in the years since he and Kara had managed to forge this new life on this new world, carving a place for themselves with sheer stubbornness and a refusal to give up, to give in. He had fallen in love with her all over again, proud and amused by the quick jerk of her chin rising in defiant challenge. Such a bright, fierce spirit housed in such a fragile body. He'd forgotten how easy these bodies were to mangle and crush, to damaged beyond all hope of repair. He had forgotten how it felt to die.

In the end, all he could do was lie there and struggle to breathe, feeling the life slipping from his ruined flesh, waiting. Afraid of the darkness that he'd spent so much of his time mocking.

* * *

This wasn't the Leoben she'd killed back on Caprica, but in the end, Leoben was Leoben was Leoben. This body might not have been the one she'd stabbed, but both then and now, it was Leoben. Still _him_, the stranger-who-wasn't, inhuman blue eyes and a smile that took her breath away. A mockery of a man who knew her better than she knew herself, and used the knowledge for his own purposes. A mechanical _thing_ that, after so many years, had managed to battered down her barriers and made a place for himself in her heart.

She fell to her knees, hands outstretched but falling away before actually touching him. There was nowhere to touch that wouldn't send agony through his lean frame. Her hands, normally so strong and sure, fluttered uselessly before subsiding onto her thighs. She looked down into his familiar face and was stunned by the tears.

"Leoben?" It frightened her, seeing him like this. In the twenty years they'd been here, working the land with their hands and the strength of their backs, she'd never seen him look so fragile.

He struggled to sit up, fighting against the pain which was wearing away his ability to hide from her. "Kara—" His voice was a hoarse, choked whisper, the vibrancy flayed away by the certain knowledge that he was _dying_. "Kara—"

She touched him, flinching away when he cried out and tried to escape her gentle hands. She listened to his horrible wheezing and wondered how much longer she was going to make him suffer. "Sssh. It's okay. It's gonna be okay, Leoben." She grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down, holding him still as best she could. "Sssh."

"No—I'm—I'm—Oh, God, what if I don't come back?" He gasped and his body writhed involuntarily, his inhuman calm shattered. The tears left streaks through the blood that painted his face and Kara felt her stomach twist at seeing him so broken and lost.

After all this time, for _him_ to lose faith. It saddened her, his doubt. He had been her source of strength for so long, guiding her to their destiny.

Maybe it was her turn.

She straddled his hips and bent down over him, meeting his cloudy eyes. She could see how quickly he was fading. "You belong to me," she said, cupping his face in her hands. "You are mine and you _will_ come back to me. No matter how long it takes. Mine. Understand?"

She waited for his acknowledging nod before kissing him, trying to put all of her love and faith into that simple meeting of lips. She could feel when the doubt left him, his body relaxing, absorbing the pain instead of fighting against it. She kissed his forehead and rested her cheek against his temple, listening to the rapid beat of his heart. Carefully, she moved her hands to his neck, feeling for the fluttering throb of his pulse. When she found it, she pressed down gently, blocking the blood flow and waiting as his breathing slowed...slowed...and finally stopped.

She took a gasping, sobbing breath, and covered her face for a moment, pressing hard against her eyes to push back the tears. She stood up. "I'll be waiting for you," she told the starry sky. "Come home soon." She turned and walked away, her tears drying on her cheeks.

-fin-


End file.
